No full spoilers for how David Cross’ new stand-up special I’m From the Future starts, but as he tells Consequence, “This one, I think, is my favorite opening ever. It’s definitely a ‘you’re with me or you’re not with me’ way to open a show.”
The special represents a big moment for Cross, who had been unable to perform comedy during the pandemic, the longest period of time he’d spent off stage ever since he first started doing stand-up. But as he reflects on the difficult past few years, he’s also excited for the future, including Guru Nation, a newly-announced Paramount+ collaboration with his longtime creative partner and best friend Bob Odenkirk.
In this extended interview, which you can both watch here as well as read via the edited transcript below, Cross goes through why it meant so much to him to share this particular stand-up set why now, why he chose to self-distribute it, and why he doesn’t care about the possibility of his comedy alienating people. He also reflects upon his love for Station Eleven, the HBO Max series in which he guest-starred, and his current perspective on Arrested Development — all five seasons of the series.
In terms of putting together the special, what made you really want to get back on stage?
Well, there’s two parts to that answer. The impetus to do the special was because I was supposed to go on tour; I had to cancel the tour but I had all this material ready to go. And I also knew that it could potentially be a long, long time before I get to go out on tour and a fair chunk of that material, I wouldn’t be doing again in two years from now.
So I wanted to get it recorded, and really scrambled to get a production together. It was probably the quickest I’ve ever done anything like that. It was a matter of weeks. We shot some of the shows at the Bellhouse and then a friend of a friend edited it. And then there it is.
So it was really about getting that stuff out there because I’m about to work on this other project and it could just potentially be a long, long time before I’m out on tour. And the reason to do standup was that I hadn’t done it in a year and a half, up to the first time that I did it in the pandemic era. It’s just truly a need that I have. I have to do it. And that’s the longest I’ve gone without doing stand-up, I would imagine, ever since I started doing it.
I talked to you several years ago and at that time, you mentioned that you feel like standup is one of the most divisive things you do.
Easily.
What’s important for you about continuing to do it, in that respect?
Well, I mean, the divisive thing is just a byproduct of it. That’s just who I am and what it’s turned out to be. And, and that kind of presented itself fairly early in my career. But the fact that it’s divisive has no bearing on, you know, whether I’m doing it or, or, you know anything like that. It’s just sort of what it is. [Laughs]
I know some people don’t care for me or my personality. I was just on Twitter a little while ago and somebody ’em was like, I hate that guy. He’s got the most punchable face. So I know that that’s part and parcel with what I do.
Photo courtesy of David Cross
I mean, it’s an unfortunate side effect, I’m sure.
I mean, I guess. Who gives a… You know, I don’t care about those people.
It feels like a healthy way to live your life.
Yeah. I can’t get all upset about a stranger who I know nothing about who potentially has terrible taste.
In terms of the material, I’m not gonna spoil any jokes or anything, but the special is very invested in the moment that we’re currently in. For you, is there one piece of material or one joke that you felt like the whole thing kind of came out of?
Well, that’s interesting. I would say it came out of… Certainly the thrust of the special really starts from the open, which is a very particular specific opening. I don’t wanna give anything away, but that kind of encapsulates the idea.
Every special I’ve done before, there’s a ton of stuff. Most of the stuff doesn’t have anything to do with, you know, COVID or wearing a mask or any of that. But when I’m putting sets together, for me, at least I tend to speak extemporaneously in the beginning when I’m developing stuff. And that’s just sort of the nature of my approach to getting material. So I guess I don’t know how to answer that question. I don’t know if there’s a specific thing that got the wheels turning or anything like that.
That makes sense. I know the material you’re talking about at the very beginning of the show, and I can totally see why that would be the thrust for you.
Yeah. Definitely once you put that idea out there, you’re starting at a certain place and either they’re with you or they’re not with you, and then you just go from there. And then I feel like that’s that little bit is rolling the ball uphill, and then once you get to the punchline, it’s going down and just picking up speed as you continue.
Well, it’s also, it’s an interesting way of coming at a comedy special because, you know, I feel like a feel like there are probably two schools of thought about it. One is, “I want to welcome people in and get them on my side.” And then the other version is, “I’m just going to really put you in it right now and see how you react.”
Yeah. That’s exactly correct. Those are certainly two approaches, and I’ve done both. Sometimes I have really goofy, silly openings. Like two specials ago, I had a fairly well known Spoon song and I asked Brit Daniels to alter the lyrics halfway through so that people in the audience to be like, wait a second, what is what’s happening, I know the song, but that’s a different thing. And that became the intro.
Then, three specials ago, I had a kid come out every place I went — I hired a kid actor, put a bald cap on him and glasses like an eight-year-old boy. And then I gave him a script and he came out and the kid would be me doing some of my material and then leave in a profanity-laced huff, and then I’d come on and sing a song. So yeah, they’re all different. But this one I think is my favorite opening ever. It’s definitely a “you’re with me or you’re not with me” way to open a show.
It’s interesting to talk to you about this just because, if I’d gone back a couple of years and told myself of all the battlefronts that COVID is gonna be fought on, comedy is going to be a big one — it feels like it’s become a weird place for that.
Yeah, that’s just the nature of comedy, though. A lot of what comedians do, specifically standups, is comment on what’s going on with the times, you know. Some people don’t ever approach that, but a lot of people do. And, and that’s in part, part of a comedian’s job.
That being said, do you feel like the climate today is different from where it was like, even just before the pandemic?
I mean, it stands to reason, right? I would imagine so. I unfortunately won’t really know. I mean, I was supposed to be on tour right now, and I will always, always regret not being able to do this set in particular in places that are not as left-leaning as Brooklyn, New York. The idea that I’m not gonna get to do this set in Oklahoma City or Ames, Iowa or a place that might be a little redder as it were is, I’ll always regret that. I mean, this set, in the panhandle of Oklahoma, would’ve been really something to experience.
I’m sure you’re basing that on past experience doing material in those areas. What kind of reactions have you gotten?
You mean over the years? I mean, for the most part, certainly in the last 10 years, 90 percent of the audience knows who I am. They’re amenable to it. That’s what I do, and that’s why they got their car and came to see me and paid for a babysitter and all that stuff.
But you know, you certainly still get people who are like, “Hey, that guy from that thing that I love is in town, let’s go see him,” and they’re not familiar with my material. And then you get people who are not happy. And sometimes people feel personally attacked, you know?
Talk me through a little bit about the distribution — it seems like it’s pretty much self-distributed?
Completely 100%. Yes.
It’s not your first time playing with this sort of distribution method — what is it that’s important to you about being able to do that?
Two things. One was more important with this particular project, but the two things are: one, I control everything and I get to own it in perpetuity. That’s important. My Netflix special, my Epix special, those are lost to the algorithm. It may not ever show up [for you] because you didn’t like a comedian that’s kind of similar or whatever in the same vein or whatever. So it’s just sort of lost.
Then the other thing that was even more important than that is the turnaround. I shot this on November 7th and 8th, and literally, three months later it’s coming out. When I was shopping it, a lot of the response was like, “Well, you know, we really don’t have anything until the third quarter of 2022.” One said, “We are so backed up because of the pandemic, we don’t have any slots until 2023.”
It was like, fuck that. That made the decision very easy. I was like, fuck it, I’ll do it this way. And it’s good. It’ll be there forever, you know?
Yeah, and owning the rights — I think nowadays, we’re seeing people look back on decisions they made about their rights ownership years ago and regret them.
Yep. And I feel similar and that’s why all of my material is now an NFT. [Laugh] Because I believe in pyramid schemes.
I believe there’s also at least one joke in there about Joe Rogan.
There’s a reference. Yes. There’s a reference to Dr. Joseph Rogan.
Was there ever any question in your head about, “Do I need to name-drop him in this bit?”
Well, I never really thought of it as name-dropping. I think there’s a connotation that name-dropping is somebody trying to, you know, impress you with going like, yeah, I shared an Uber with Charlie Rose. Well, that’s a bad thing. But yeah, it’s not a name drop necessarily. It’s a reference that [the joke] doesn’t need to exist, it wouldn’t make the bit better or worse if it was in there or not. It’s just a little thing I riffed and decided to keep in.
Station Eleven (HBO Max)
In terms of everything else you’ve got going on, I was among many people who loved you in Station Eleven.
Oh, thanks. That was really… I was deeply impressed and moved by that show. It was really cool. I loved it.
It seems like, even when you were inside it, it was a really special work.
Yeah. I mean, I kind of knew. I met with Patrick [Somerville], the writer/showrunner, a number of times — I was lucky enough to hang out and talk with him and, and he is amazing. I never saw a script past my episodes and things changed from what I had read up to what I was shooting… I had a vague idea of the scope of it, but I didn’t know what the tone was going to be, how it was going to be treated.
And when I sat down to watch that first episode, I mean, the acting is so good and that’s the kind of storytelling I love. I really gravitate towards that kind of intricate, layered, woven [story], dropping little hints and bits of information here and there and going back and forth in time.
It was just a beautiful thing that, you know, when I watched the last two episodes, I was crying. Everyone’s going to take away something different, but there’s kind of an optimism that I didn’t expect. And it makes a really important and beautiful statement about how important and beautiful art is. And art will be lasting and art resonates, and it’s powerful and it’s needed and necessary. That’s one of the things I took away from it that really moved me.
I just thought it was really well done and a great story. I was a tiny little part of it and I came in, did my stuff, and then left and, you know, 90 percent of it, I didn’t know how it was gonna look or play out. It was just a great experience.
Your wife, Amber [Tamblyn], was also working on Y the Last Man over the last couple years — were you two ever, essentially, working on two apocalypse shows at the same time?
Yeah, we absolutely were. We were stuck in Toronto and I mean stuck. We were locked in, they called it stay at home orders. I think I addressed that briefly in the special, but it was a extremely difficult time. I got very depressed, it was tough on our marriage. It was really, you know… We were in a stranger’s house, in a kind of a strange place, with a hyper four year old. It was tough. Nothing’s open, you can’t go anywhere, you can’t do anything.
It was really difficult and you know, my wife was able to work and I was able to pick up a little work here and there, but you know you know, cumulatively my six months there, I think I worked like nine days over six months. It was tough, which is why not being able to do standup was like a palpable thing that was missing. That was a role that I, for the first time I didn’t get to do. As I said, it was by far the longest I’ve ever gone without doing standup. And it was tough.
Of course. In happier news, I think many people are very excited, certainly I am, about Guru Nation, which just got announced. How did that come together? And what’s it like being back with Bob on a project?
It’s great as always. Bob and I are very close and, you know, we’re best friends and, and we are talking all the time and we both are very supportive of each other’s work. I wanna say kind of right about this time last year, I’d say maybe a little later, he’s like, “Hey, I got this idea,” and just sort of pitched me this one-line thing.
I think he had been talking to his brother Bill, who’s gonna write and produce on it, about these guys and then over time we’d get together, we’d just find an hour or two to zoom and then we’d send emails back and forth and we’d accumulate ideas and, you know, send them.
I wasn’t working much at all, so I was able to kind of take all these notes and put them together. I was happy to do it — I had nothing else to do, so it was nice to occupy my time that way. So I just started eventually putting these outlines together, then we’d all Zoom meet eight days later and then we’d go over stuff. It’s not the ideal way to work, but we got a real solid base, if not more, for this show idea, then we put together this pitch, and then we went and pitched it all on Zoom, you know, which is a new way of doing it
We had a lot of interest immediately, so that was good. And we went with Paramount+ for various reasons and we’re excited to work with them — we know some of the folks over there and we’re looking forward to it.
Bob Odenkirk and David Cross
In wrapping up, quick question number one — in doing the research for this. I discovered that you are an award-winning actor for your work on Halo 2. Have you been approached to appear in the new Paramount+ series?
I have not.
Curses!
Well, look, there’s a difference between this face and just the voice. I did voice work for Halo 2. I think me as that Marine is not gonna really cut it.
Fair enough. And final question: I know that Arrested Development is in the rear view mirror at point. And I’m curious, to keep that metaphor going, what’s your perspective on it at this point? Like, how do you feel about the show, looking back?
I think the first three seasons are absolute gold and a kind of standard bearer for television comedy and intricate comedy writing and stories and character development and storytelling. I think the fourth season was good.
I particularly enjoyed the idea that Mitch had where everything’s kind of connected, but you have to watch it all. I thought that aspect of it was a little underrated and it was underrated because people had difficulty watching it — it was something new. It was a new way to watch TV. I didn’t quite get it at first, but about halfway through watching, I was like, oh, I see how to watch this. And I went back and watched it.
I thought the fifth season was really disappointing, and it’s too bad we had to go out that way. But in no way does it tarnish or affect or color my view of those first three seasons, which were just great.
I’m From the Future premieres online via DavidCross.com on Saturday, February 12th at 8:00 p.m. PT.